Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Soddo (Agenzia Fides) - Facing recurrent famines and epidemics, the Ethiopian population lives the terrible contradiction of population growth among the most striking in the entire African continent and of mortality, especially concerning infants, one of the most dramatic, facilitated by the total absence of food perspectives and proper sanitation facilities.
The area of the Wolayta is in the southern part of Ethiopia. It has a population of more than 1 million and a half constituted 50.3% by women. 83% of the residents are farmers. The entire area is served by one public hospital, in Soddo, the capital of the region, where there is no running water, built more than 40 years ago, when the number of the population was much lower than today.
The hospital provides care for women and children with a functioning operating room and another partially functioning. The operating room is shared with the surgical ward and a mother may have to wait before being subjected to a caesarean section; there is only a labor and delivery room, so women in labor are in the same room destined for delivery; there are only 11 rooms, each with a bed, and there is a department dedicated to children who are treated together with adults. To cope with this emergency, the Help Center for Ethiopia, a non-profit association with the aim of promoting education initiatives, education, social and health care for the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea, intends to build a new medical center devoted entirely to mother and child care. The new center will be on two floors for a total of about 1,700 square meters with a hundred beds, some of which are dedicated to the pediatric ward, and rooms will be equipped with X-ray and a CAT scan that will serve the entire South of Ethiopia. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 21/11/2012)
